These days when we talk about hunting knives, we don’t really mean a knife that is specifically used for stabbing or killing animals. Undoubtedly hunting knives are still alive and well in wild boar hunting, which is normally done with a dagger, specifically called hunting dagger. It is purposely designed for stabbing.
Considering modern day needs, a hunting knife is a refined version of the hunting dagger. It takes many forms but is particularly optimized for cutting and slicing rather than stabbing. There are hundreds of designs for modern day hunting knife, which makes it really difficult to establish one all-encompassing design for hunting knives.
A typical hunting knife should definitely serve multiple purposes, but we generally only consider stabbing and cutting as its whole-sole purpose. However, these knives can also be used for skinning, gutting, stabbing, slicing, butchering, and boning.
It is impossible for a hunting knife to serve multiple tasks. Hence, there was a need to introduce varied types of knives which could be used for hunting . Today we’ll be discussing types of knives and their uses.
Types of knives
1. Bowie Knife
Bowie Knife is the most popular hunting knife amongst hunters. It’s a type of knife that is relatively larger in size. It’s a fighting knife with a clip point blade. Bowie Knife became popular in the late 19th and early 20th century. You might also find few knife designs based on Bowie knife. This knife generally has wooden handle for strong grip and fixed blade.
2. Camp Knife
Camp Knife is a multi purpose hunting knife designed in a way to do most of your tasks. People generally purchase such knives for presentation and enhance reputation in hunting families. Camp knife is regarded as a classic knife which can be utilised for different campsite purposes. Its general design is a large drop point knife that can do major hunting tasks. Again the handle is quite strong for gripping and larger than the regular hunting knives.
3. Caping Knife
When we talk about hunting knives, we are generally looking for an all-rounder knife thats fits in the modern day utilisation. However, when we talk about caping knife, we are looking about the most popular animal hunting knife.
When creating an animal trophy, you’ll definitely want to keep the neck preserved, which is why the caping knife has an unturned point on a smaller blade. It is specifically used for cutting animal head without damaging the shape. Even though these knives are utilised in caping, it can be used for other specialized purposes as well.
4. Skinning Knife
The word skinning is self explanatory. These knives are generally designed to peel of the skin from an animal’s body, and for the same reason it is without tearing the hide, a skinning knife has a short, thin blade that curves at the end. It is necessary for a skinning knife to have a gripping handle and a razor sharp out of the box blade.
5. BoningKnife
A boning knife is almost similar to a fillet knife. However, Fillet knife is meant to remove skin specifically from fish, one the other hand, boning knife is used for removing meat from a carcass. A boning knife is yet another refined version of hunting knife that makes it easy to remove meat. Including fillet knife as an category was not necessary here as you’ll often find a combo of boning/fillet knife in the market.
There are major categories of hunting knives that are still left to discuss, but we have tried introducing you with some of the best hunting knives. Modern day hunting knives have many popular sizes and shapes, but handmade damascus hunting knives can be considered as the best modern day hunting tool.
